One of the things I’ve done during ‘Snowmageddon’, ‘Snowpocalypse’, or whatever you’re calling Washington, D.C.’s latest snow storm, is read Timothy Ferriss’ excellent new book ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’.

I’m only about halfway through the book but thought I’d share some of my thoughts with you. (The book, along with watching movies with my wife and cooking, has helped me cope with what could be a crippling case of cabin fever.)

For those who haven’t heard of the book, a #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, it is essentially about how to work less, have more free time and make more money in less time. He calls it ‘The New Rich’.

For those reasons it clearly distinguishes itself from the herd. Go to Borders bookstore or Barnes and Noble and you’ll see countless books about how to either save more money or make more money.

In contrast, Ferriss emphasizes leveraging his time so that he can spend more of it away from his computer and phone. He appears to value the currency of time more so than money.

Ferriss not a slacker. Far from it. He’s a 32-year-old Princeton grad who founded BrainQUICKEN, an online company that sells sports nutrition supplements. He sold the company last year, made a fortune, and now travels the world and invests in online ventures like Twitter.

Not everyone can create a hugely successful online company and have a team of people working for him.

However, Ferriss outlines some key concepts that can apply to every unhappy 9-to5-er out there:  Work more efficiently; eliminate, or significantly decrease, time spent on activities that drain your time and energy; stop limiting your dreams.

So, to work more efficiently, Ferriss figured out the most productive times of day to make sales calls (early in the morning and after 5 pm) and those became the hours of the day he focused on. He distinguishes between being “busy” and being “productive”.

He is a big believer in a concept he calls “batching” to handle distracting but necessary “time consumers”, those repetitive tasks that interrupt more important ones. To that end, he checks his email twice a day, at 12 pm and 4 pm, and does laundry every other Sunday at 10 pm.

Lastly, Ferriss suggests that we stop capping our own happiness by choosing “realistic” goals, relegating ourselves to a life of mediocrity. In fact, he argues, since so few of us really challenge ourselves it’s far easier to achieve the seemingly impossible (getting a celebrity on the phone, for example) than not.

I look forward to finishing the book – and not seeing another $%@&*#^&# snowflake until next winter.